nnushi_ of the Geiku or Outer Palace Temple at Ise. He
promulgated his views about the year 1660, basing them upon the book
called Eki by the Japanese and Yi-king by the Chinese. This Yi-king,
which Professor Terrien de Laeouporie declares is only a very ancient
book of pronunciation of comparative Accadian and Chinese Syllabaries,
has been the cause of incredible waste of labor, time, and brains in
China--enough to have diked the Yellow River or drained the swamps of
the Empire. It is the chief basis of Chinese superstition, and the
greatest literary barrier to the advance of civilization. It has also
made much mischief in Japan. Deguchi explained the myths of the age of
the gods by divination or eki, based on the Chinese books. As late as
1893 there was published in T[=o]ki[=o] a work in Japanese, with good
translation info English, on Scientific Morality, or the practical
guidance of life by means of divination--The Takashima Ekidan (or
Monograph on the Eki of Mr. Takashima), by S. Sugiura.

The Jikko sect, according to its representative at the World's
Parliament of Religions at Chicago, is "the practical." It lays stress
less upon speculation and ritual, and more upon the realization of the
best teachings of Shint[=o]. It was founded by Hasegawa Kakugi[=o], who
was born at Nagasaki in 1541. Living in a cave in Fuji-yama, "he
received inspiration through the miraculous power of the mountain." It
believes in one absolute Deity, often mentioned in the Kojiki, which,
self-originated, took the embodiment of two deities, one with the male
nature and the other female, though these two deities are nothing but
forms of the one substance and unite again in the absolute deity. These
gave birth to the Japanese Archipelago, the sun and moon, the mountains
and streams, the divine ancestors, etc. According to the teachings of
this sect, the peerless mountain, Fuji, ought to be reverenced as the
sacred abode of the divine lord, and as "the brains of the whole globe."
The believer must make Fuji the example and emblem of his thought and
action. He must be plain and simple, as the form of the mountain, making
his body and mind pure and serene, as Fuji itself. The present world
with all its practical works must be respected more than the future
world. We must pray for the long life of the country, lead a life of
temperance and diligence, cooperating with one another in doing good.

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_Statist